An Analysis of Observations from EOS Space Debris Tracking System

Jizhang Sang
EOS Space Systems Pty Ltd

Craig Smith
EOS Space Systems Pty Ltd

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     Last modified: June 8, 2011

Abstract
EOS Space Systems conducted a demonstration project, the RazorView project, in July and August 2004 to show the capability of tracking space debris objects using laser ranging technique with the EOS Space Debris Tracking System. During the RazorView campaign, nearly 100 LEO objects were tracked with the lasers, representing a tracking success rate over 85%.

This paper, being the first time, presents an analysis of the observations collected by the system during or around the RazorView campaign. It is shown that space debris objects could be tracked with the EOS Debris Tracking System in a RMS accuracy better than 1.5m for the ranges and about 1.5" for the angular directions. The 3-dimentional measurements of positions of debris objects provide a better basis than other ground-based debris tracking methods for debris orbit determination and prediction. It shows that, when the laser ranging data is used for the orbit determination of LEO debris objects, the orbit determination accuracy can be as good as a few meters, and the 24-hour orbit prediction accuracy of 100 - 200 meters is achievable.